THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much, and welcome to the White
House. We're glad you're here. Interestingly enough, it was here, 58
years ago today, that President Harry Truman announced the end of the
war in Europe. And the people of America and Europe celebrated that
victory together.

This year on VE Day we mark another kind of victory in Europe.
Just hours ago, the United States Senate voted unanimously to support
NATO admission for Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia and Slovenia. These heroic nations have survived tyranny,
they have won their liberty and earned their place among free nations.
America has always considered them friends, and we will always be proud
to call them allies.

I appreciate the Foreign Ministers of the NATO nations -- or the
nations who will soon be joining NATO -- who are with us today. We
just had a great discussion in the Roosevelt Room in the White House
complex.

I appreciate so very much the Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
has been a strong and tireless advocate for the expansion of NATO.
(Applause.)

I want to thank the members of the United States Senate who have
joined us here today. I appreciate Majority Leader Bill Frist of
Tennessee for coming. I particularly want to thank Chairman Dick Lugar
and ranking member Joe Biden for their strong leadership in getting the
Senate to vote unanimously for the admission of these nations into
NATO. Great job, senators. (Applause.)

I also am honored to welcome George Voinovich, the Senator from
Ohio and, more importantly, Janet Voinovich, his wife. (Laughter and
applause.) And Senator Carl Levin from Michigan. Welcome, I'm glad you
all are here, and thanks for coming.

I want to welcome the chairmen and chairwomen of the parliamentary
foreign affairs committees who are here. I appreciate the ambassadors
from our current and future allied nations who are joining us today. I
want to thank General Richard Myers for joining us today, the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And I want to thank all of our
distinguished guests for coming.

The defeat of Nazi Germany brought an end to the armed conflict in
Europe. But that victory did not bring true peace and unity to the
continent. For millions, tyranny remained in a different uniform. The
freedom of Bulgaria and Romania and Slovakia and Slovenia was subverted
by communist dictators. And Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were wiped
off the map as independent countries.

As the Iron Curtain fell across Europe, and walls and barbed wire
were raised, the free nations of Europe and the United States gathered
their will and courage and formed the greatest alliance of liberty.
Through 40 winters of Cold War, NATO defended the security of the
western world, and held in trust the ideal of freedom for all the
peoples of Europe.

This division, this great standoff, did not end in military
conflict. It ended when the peoples of central and eastern Europe took
history into their own hands and took back their rights and their
freedom.

From that moment, it was clear that the old lines dividing Europe
between east and west, the lines of Yalta, were entirely irrelevant to
the future.

Nearly two years ago, in Warsaw, I urged the enlargement of NATO to
all of Europe's democracies, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and all
that lie between, so that people in those countries would have the same
chance for security and freedom enjoyed by Europe's older democracies.

I called upon all the NATO allies to renew our mission and to meet
the great challenges and opportunities of the world beyond Europe. And
these challenges arrived quickly. Following the terrorist attacks of
September the 11th, NATO invoked its commitment to collective -- to
the collective defense for the first time in its history.

Our friends in central and eastern Europe responded as well,
providing resources of law enforcement and intelligence to help breakup
terrorist cells, to disrupt terrorist plots, and to cut off terrorist
funding.

In the battle of Afghanistan, nations from central and eastern
Europe supplied soldiers and special forces and peacekeepers to help
defeat the Taliban, to help destroy the terrorists and to bring freedom
to the Afghan people.

In the battle of Iraq, central and eastern European countries have
stood with America and our coalition to end a grave threat to peace,
and to rid Iraq of a brutal, brutal regime. The peoples of Bulgaria,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have a fresh
memory of tyranny. And they know the consequences of complacency in
the face of danger.

Time and again, they have demonstrated their desire and ability to
defend freedom against its enemies. They have proven themselves to be
allies by their action. And now it is time to make them allies by
treaty.

This morning's vote in the Senate brings that day closer. I urge
all the current members of NATO to welcome these new members as quickly
as possible. These nations will make NATO stronger, and we need that
strength for all the work that lies ahead. We must continue to fight
global terror and strongly oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.

NATO, itself, must develop new military capabilities to meet the
emerging dangers of a new era. We must help the people of the Balkans
to become full partners in the progress of Europe. We welcome the
commitment of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia to the values and
principles of NATO. And we will help them as they move forward with
reform.

We have work ahead in bringing order and security to Iraq, so the
Iraqi people can build the institutions of freedom and provide an
example of democracy to other Arab nations. And just as NATO has stood
for the freedom of all of Europe, we must stand with people everywhere
who strive for greater freedom and tolerance and development and health
and opportunity, including those in the Middle East and Africa.

This day was a long time in coming, yet there was never any doubt.
Through decades of crisis and division, Europe's peoples shared with
people everywhere the same need and hope for freedom. This hope
overcame the designs of tyrants and this hope overcame the tragedies of
war.

The nations of central and eastern Europe are one of history's
great examples of the power and appeal of liberty. And we believe that
example will be followed and multiplied throughout the world.